HL Deb 03 March 1987 vol 485 cc617-8WA
Lord Kennet

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the purpose of the ground based electro-optical deep space surveillance system recently completed by the United States Air Force on Diego Garcia.

The Minister of State for Defence Procurement (Lord Trefgarne)

The ground-based electro-optical deep space surveillance system on Diego Garcia is a space tracking station for the passive monitoring by light sensitive telescopes of objects in space, particularly satellites in geosynchronous orbit.